00:00 Well, we know First Nations people experience racism. There are studies and inquiries into
00:06 this. But in order to better understand the true extent of this discrimination, the Call
00:12 It Out Register was launched in March last year. It's an online platform where individuals
00:17 can register and then they go through a series of questions reporting an incident or ongoing
00:23 events. So nearly 500 individuals registered over 12 months and close to four out of 10
00:32 people reported a high level of violent and aggressive racism. So that's physical and
00:38 verbal abuse. Researchers have analysed the submissions and now they have put out this
00:45 report today. It's the first annual report. New South Wales had the most occurrences of
00:52 racism followed by Western Australia and workplaces were a very common location and a major concern.
01:01 What role, if any, has the referendum played? So in this reporting period for the Call It
01:07 Out annual report, it concluded in March 2023. So that's six months before the referendum
01:14 on an Indigenous voice to Parliament. Researchers have told me that they are well aware of the
01:20 significant increase in racism that First Nations people experienced closer to that
01:25 official referendum campaign. But they'll be looking at that in next year's report.
01:30 And we've seen data on that already from 13 Yarn, the lifeline call centre. So what researchers
01:38 have told me is that racial stereotyping was very common in this reporting period from
01:44 March 2022 to March 2023. Professor Chris Kenean, he's involved with Call It Out from
01:52 the University of Technology, Sydney. He said he's worried about the long term health effects
01:57 that ongoing racism is having on First Nations Australians.
02:02 One where an elderly woman was knocked to the ground and another one where an elderly
02:09 woman and her daughter, it was her daughter making the registration on Call It Out, where
02:15 they were pepper sprayed along with physical abuse. This occurred in a housing complex,
02:24 a set of housing units where they were the only Aboriginal people. She describes it as
02:30 being an all white unit except for themselves. And they'd been subjected to verbal abuse,
02:37 constant verbal abuse. And on this particular occasion, physical abuse.
02:42 So Carly, what will happen with these findings and in particular the workplaces and institutions
02:48 that you talked about earlier? So this register is less about holding individuals
02:54 accountable. And there are official complaint platforms that do do that, like the Human
02:59 Rights Commission, or HR departments in workplaces and even the police. What the Call It Out
03:04 register is more about is collating the personal lived experiences of First Nations Australians
03:11 and using that info to understand the circumstances around that. How often is it happening? Where
03:16 is it happening? And it is encouraging to see this register capture experiences that
03:23 can often be falling through the cracks through that official legal process. And it provides
03:29 us with that ability to think more strategically about how we combat racism. And this can inform
03:34 law reform and anti-racism campaigns. And that's what the Call It Out register's aim
03:40 is.
03:40 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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